In order to properly maintain image forming devices such as printers, copiers, facsimile, and multi-function peripherals, remote management systems have been designed to collect various items of management information, such as maintenance management information, working state and failure information of the image forming devices. Most remote management systems are network based. Thus, most image forming devices may be coupled to a communication network so that the connection between the image forming devices and a central management device is established via the network.
The monitoring server may collect information regarding the image forming device such as the number and kind of prints the image forming device has performed and other aspects of its current state and/or operation. This information may be stored so that historical records of incidents that occur for the image forming device may be maintained. An incident may include a hardware or software issue.
The image forming device needs to be available for normal operations, such as printing, scanning, copying and other functions, for as long as possible with a minimum number of errors. With the printing function, it is desirable for the image forming device to produce print volume as efficiently as possible. When the image forming device is in a good operating status, it produces high print volume with minimum errors. If the image forming device has one or more parts with degradation or operating problems, the number of errors correlates with print volume. For instance, if a paper feeder has a mechanical problem, then the rate of paper jams will depend on number of printed pages.
Diagnostics of problematic image forming devices may be developed based on information about the amount of errors monitored and the number of pages printed. A maximum number of accepted errors may be predetermined by manufacturer specification for each device model. For instance, a maintenance specification can determine a normal failure rate as Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), which equals one thousand pages between paper jams as a threshold. In a simple exemplary case, if only one jam error happens every 1,000 printed pages—the image forming device may be associated with a normal operating status.